Mike Huckabee has added to the furore Rep. Todd Akin unleashed with his 'legitimate rape' comments by pointing out that 'extraordinary' people can be born out of 'forcible rape'.The one-time presidential candidate made the claim, which will no doubt stoke the fires of outrage, on his radio show on Thursday as he gave the beleaguered Akin a platform to explain his comments.'Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape,' Huckabee said of the late singer, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.

'I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s. He leads a large Christian organisation. He was the result of a forcible rape.'

He added: 'I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, those people are able to do extraordinary things.'